image does not render in blender 2.8
When dragging an image from a folder to the 2D-anim workspace, an empty with the image is created. This will never render, and is probably meant as an reference-image.

Use "images as planes" instead. If the menu-items are not there (that was my problem) then disable and re-enable the addon "images as planes"


Open userpreferences->addons 
Find "images as planes"
Disable it - enable it
Menu-entries are now under "file->import" and "add->images"